Long before the northern barbarians had descended into the plains of Italy as conquerors, and whilst they were still the tributaries of Rome, they had earned the reputation of being brave, but indolent and intemperate. Pliny, who has already enlightened us concerning the habits of his own countrymen, tells us that the chief drink of the Germans was beer, or, as he calls it, “corn steeped in water,” which, he says, was capable of being kept until it had attained a great age. They, however, soon learned the superiority of the wines of Italy and Gaul, and those are said to have been not the least of the inducements which tempted them to make incursions into their neighbours’ territories. Tacitus describes the Germans as a primitive, savage, and warlike race, much addicted to intemperance in drink, but chaste and virtuous in their relations with women, whom they treated with great respect.[178] He says that they slept late into the day, and on rising they proceeded to bathe, after which they partook of a meal, each sitting on a distinct seat and at a separate table. They then went armed to business, and not less frequently to convivial parties, in which it was no disgrace to pass whole days and nights without intermission in drinking. The frequent quarrels which arose amongst them when intoxicated seldom terminated in abusive language only, but more frequently in bloodshed. Their drink, he also says, was a liquor prepared from barley or wheat, brought by fermentation to a certain resemblance of wine, but those who bordered on the Rhine also purchased wine. They fed on fresh venison (some writers say they ate it raw), wild fruits, and coagulated milk, and their intemperance in eating and drinking was such as to give great advantage to the Romans in their wars, or, as Tacitus puts it, “intemperance proves as effectual in subduing them as the force of arms.” A modern German writer, who has devoted considerable attention to the rise, progress, and subsidence of the passion for drink in his native land, attributes the love of drink in his ancestors to the damp climate, and to their being constantly engaged in war or in hunting wild beasts.[179] They appear, however, to have regarded the use of wine at first with some apprehension, as it affected their physical powers more injuriously than beer; and although vineyards were planted at an early period, it is said, by Roman soldiers, the production and use of wine was long of a limited character.[180]